Alison the Literarist (is that a word)

Throughout Fun Home, I was struck by Alison and Bruce's tendency to turn to literature and books to better understand themselves and the world around them as well as the sheer love they derive from reading. From Bruce reading Anna Karenina on the first page of the book to Alison reading key texts on gender and sexuality during her journey of self-discovery, books serve as an important way through which Alison and Bruce understand themselves but also grow the bond between them, a bond that can be tender sometimes. However, there were also scenes where Bechdel not just uses literature to indicate growth within Alice and Bruce but they serve as tools for foreshadowing. 

Like mentioned before, Bruce is seen reading Anna Karenina on the first page - while this goes to show that he is well read and an intellectual and spends more of his time with his books than playing with his children (though he can be spared for a spot of airplane), Anna Karenina is an interesting choice to kick off the book. Maybe Alison does remember Bruce specifically reading Tolstoy that day that her airplane memory is from but Anna Karenina is also partly about a woman who kills herself by throwing herself under a train (yes, there are a lot of parallels.) Anna Karenina's famous opening line goes "Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way," - on the surface, Alison's family has the typical, happy American suburban family vibe. They live in a nice house and have a seemingly perfect life but their unhappiness is "unique" in a sense - it's very much underneath the surface and full of secrets that not even members of the family understand. 

Of course, the biggest "parallel" in Fun Home is between Bruce's life and that of the Fitzgeralds - Alison spends a considerable amount of panels delving into this strange connection and even notes how similar Bruce and F. Scott Fitzgerald's lifespans are. Bruce sees himself as a Jay Gatsby, preferring to live in the world of books and fiction (as Gatsby prefers to live in the illusion of glamour than confront the reality of his position in society) compared to acknowledge who he is authentically. The final seen really shook me as well as it's of Bruce in a pool with Alison and the final seen of The Great Gatsby is of Jay Gatsby in a pool in his house. 

Fun Home uses a lot of literary references which really compels the reader to look under the surface for "secrets" and truths that may not be as apparent on the surface. Literature serves not just as a way for Bruce and Alison to better come to terms with who they are as people but forces us to better understand them by making sense of their intellectual journeys.